Fast Food Giant McDonald's Loses Millions in Toronto Raptor's Fry Promotion

Canadian execs at fast food giant McDonald’s might be the only ones unhappy about the Toronto Raptor’s surprising historic run. The team is currently one win away from their first NBA title after Friday night’s unlikely win against the Golden State Warriors.
About a year ago, the head of marketing for McDonald’s in eastern Canada, Chuck Coolen, signed a major sponsorship deal with the Toronto Raptors for the 2018-2019 NBA season.  Each time the Raptors make more than 12 three-pointers during a game, McDonald’s locations in Ontario would give out a free medium fry.

During the 2017-2018 season, the Raptors averaged 11.8 three-pointers a game. Out of 82 games, the Raptors made more than 12 three-pointers in only 43 of them. Then the Raptors made some trades and ended up with sharp shooters Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and Marc Gasol. Almost a year later, the Raptors have crossed the 12 three-pointer mark 54 times–44 in the regular season and 10 more times during the playoffs. An estimated two million medium-sized fries have been ordered during this promotion. On average, the cost of McDOnald’s medium fry is $2.89 CAD ($2.18 USD), so that’s about $5.8 million CAD ($4.37 million USD) in free fries.
That’s nearly three times the 700,000 fry orders McDonald’s had originally projected its Ontario restaurants would give away during the promotion. The company has been a little worried about franchisees’ ability to handle the extra demand. At one franchisees’ four Ontario stores, managers scheduled an extra fry cook for the lunch rush on “free fry days”.
Even with the ballooning cost, in the long run, McDonald’s expects the promotion to pay off. To take advantage of the promotion, Ontario residents had to use the McDonald’s app. There’s no word yet on how many new customers McDonald’s got to download their app. Tonight the Raptors could finish off the season with a historic win. Meanwhile, Ontario fans will get one last chance for free fries.
Let Sintel Systems help grow your online presence, food order and delivery business with a fully integrated Fast food & QSR POS system.